


Arigato

by thewaywardwriter



Series: The Adventures of the Konoha 11 [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-06
Updated: 2013-02-06
Packaged: 2017-11-28 10:47:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewaywardwriter/pseuds/thewaywardwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In all of the 5 years he had known his team, this was very different.</p>
<p>TenTen for one, was crying.</p>
<p>And his other 2 teammates were crying-crying.</p>
<p>In all of the years that he knew his cousin, this was very different.</p>
<p>Hinata was clearly upset. </p>
<p>But yet so determined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arigato

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** I don't own Hinata or Team Gai, they belong to Masashi Kishimoto.  
>  **Jūkenpō: Hakke Rokujūyon Shō** \- 8 trigrams 64 palms  
>  **Suna no Temari** \- Temari of the Sand  
>  **Hakkeshō Kaiten** \- Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven

TenTen was crying.

 

Out of the 5 years that Lee knew TenTen, he had only seen her cry once and that was after she lost her fight to Suna no Temari.

 

It was raining then.

 

And Lee had watched sadly from a distance as his beloved teacher approached her shaking, sobbing 13 year old form pressed up against one of their wooden training dummies.

 

Neji was not present then.

 

He is not present now.

 

"N-Neji ni-san?"

 

"Neji? Neji PLEASE! Neji don't DO THIS!!"

 

He leaped.

 

"NO!!"

 

"TENTEN!"

 

"Tenten-san!"

 

What happened next barely registered in Lee's mind.

 

All he remembered was the blur that was Neji finally settling into the familiar style that was his Jūkenpō: Hakke Rokujūyon Shō and the blur that was Tenten in the arms of their teacher bringing her back to safety.

 

"Te-"

 

"LEE!"

 

"LEE-SAN"

 

He moved, LEAPED, hoping, praying that he was fast enough to avoid Neji's attack before remembering that perhaps he could withstand it.

 

But only to a point.

 

_______________

Lee was crying.

 

Out of the 5 years that TenTen knew Lee, she had seen him cry many times and most of those times were what she, Neji and Gai considered Tears of Youth.

 

But she had seen him cry too.

 

 And like cry cry.

 

'I wish that it never had came to this. I wish that none of this had happened. I'm scared.'

 

That was what he said as he had sobbed into her shoulder.

 

And all she could do was rock, back and forth with him in her arms and say, 'Yeah...me too Lee...me too...'

 

Neji was present.

 

He was not present now.

 

And all TenTen could see was those eyes of his.

 

Those eyes, those white eyes of his that were NOT his.

 

Not his. Not this time.

 

__________

 

In all the years that Hinata and Team Gai knew Neji, this was no different.

 

Reading him (or trying to) was no different. 

 

Fighting him would be no different.

 

They had their hopes of course, that they would somehow, just somehow, be able to break the enemy's grip on him.

 

But they knew, that their chances were slim.

 

And with every dodge and every attack, they find themselves still unable to break past the young man's signature Hakkeshō Kaiten and the wall that separated him from them.

 

But they could only hope. 

 

"Asa Kuja-!"

 

"Tomo-!"

 

"Jūho Sōshi-!"

 

"Hakke Rokujūyon-!"

 

Time slows.

 

But only for a moment.

 

Quiet, strangled sobs wreak at TenTen's body as 2 of her biggest scrolls thud on the ground next to her.

 

"TenTen....Hinata-sama...minna-san...arigato..."

 

Her pained shriek would forever echo through the trees, forever etched in the minds of every living thing close enough to hear.


End file.
